ohtani's jacket

I'm almost two years in Mike Baron's Punisher run and it's just so... episodic. There's no overarching storyline. Nothing of consequence seems to happen. Even Microchip's kid dying didn't have any long term ramifications. And for a title that was presumably hot at the time, they didn't seem to give two craps about who was drawing it, handing out assignments to young talent like Whilce Portacio and Erik Larsen. I'll tell you one other thing: Jim Shooter may have been the guy who created the mandate about characters re-introducing themselves to the reader each issue, but Tom DeFalco continued to fly the banner high. It amuses me at times the parts of the story where Baron slots it in. I do kind of dig reading a comic from 1989, though, which was my first full year of reading comics. And I laughed at the issue where the Punisher goes to Australia and Baron tries to paint King's Cross as the most deadly place on earth.

Great match. This was a revancha that started off like they were already in the third caida, and never let up. Really intense trios wrestling. Every exchange felt like they were fighting for the pinfall or submission. There was very little in the way of flashy moves or showmanship. This was all about winning the match. One of the more memorable Virus performances of the year. He really shone in this environment. Definite MOTYC as far as trios matches go. One of the top lucha matches as well. Make sure you watch the first match as well to get the full effect. And a Monterrey match without any bullshit! It's a Christmas miracle!

This was a fascinating match up. Perro Jr, who we know is going to be a force in lucha for several years to come, vs a game, but past his prime, El Dandy. The action is excellent, and Dandy is having a good night, but there's so much fucking about. I swear there's more fucking about in a Monterrey match than in an Attitude Era main event. Fast forward through the bullshit if you watch this one.

This was pretty average. The only parts I liked were when Benoit was on offense, but of course they had to go with the narrative of Brock dominating and Benoit working his second match of the night. Brock was a good worker in 2003, but we've seen him work this kind of match several times and he didn't add anything new here. The ref bump and visual tap out were cliched, and even Benoit passing out instead of tapping out felt empty. I would have liked more of a straight up match with more striking and matwork.

Lucha was neglected for a long time, so I don't mind the tide turning there. Were Rocco's cheerleaders at it again? I guess they are officially trying to make Rocco one of the most overrated wrestlers of all time.

It's basically a comedy series, which was pretty radical for an X-book. It's especially weird when you consider that X-Force, the big early 90s spin-off, turned into a parody book.

I also finished X-Statix. The series never really lived up to that incredible first issue of X-Force, but it was still a lot of fun and a fairly daring thing for Marvel to publish. The best thing about it was that it allowed Mike Allred to play around with the Marvel characters. The series had a Giffen/DeMatteis feel to it at times, which I liked, but it was a bit too "on the nose" with its satire at times. That, and the fact that I don't really give a crap about celebrity culture, so it didn't really wow me in that respect. But mostly it was really hard to top that debut issue.

I finished Charles Burns’ Black Hole, which was published over a lengthy period of time from 1995 to 2005, first by Kitchen Sink Press, and then when they went out of business, picked up by Fantagraphics. Darker in tone than a lot of Burns’ early work, it retains the elements of surrealism you’d expect from Burns’ work but without the quirky, offbeat humour. Set in the 70s, it tells the story of a group of teenagers who catch a mysterious STD that causes strange mutations. It’s basically a metaphor for adolescence, sexual awakening, and coming of age, and largely focused on atmospherics over plot. The most striking feature of the book is the black and white art. Burns won the Harvey Award for Best Inker several times during the book’s publication, which is impressive given the black and white work of other artists during the time frame. The story isn’t as weird as it may seem at a glance, and the topic isn’t as weighty as a lot of other graphic novels at the time, but as a feat of cartooning, it rates as a seminal work among 80s and 90s cartoonists. Definitely worth a read for people who enjoy 90s comics as much as Ido. Burns, like many of his contemporaries, shifted to graphic novels after Black Hole was completed, and thus it represents one of the last floppy series of perhaps my favorite era of alternative comics. Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100 is okay. I prefer the projects Pope did for Vertigo (Heavy Liquid and 100%), and I actually kind of like the Batman stories he did in his issue of Solo more. Year 100 was all right as far as alternative cartoonist doing a mainstream superhero goes, but it didn't really add much to the Batman experience. Personally, I'm not that interested in seeing Batman in the future. I prefer modern reworkings of old Golden Age stories to future, Elseworlds stories. Pope draws a very distinctive Batman, though. He really plays up the bat element. He even has Batman use fake teeth to make himself look like more of a creature. I can understand why the series has its fans, but I'm far more interested in hunting down THB. I haven't read enough from this century to tell whether Asterios Polyp is the best work that's been produced thus far, but it's a major feat in cartooning. I think I may have mentioned that I was disappointed when David Mazzucchelli ditched penciling mainstream superhero comics to become an alternative cartoonist, largely because the change in style was so drastic, but it led a masterpiece. Mazzucchelli is one of the few artists who can claim to have created important works at both ends of the spectrum.

Not a match I'd usually watch, but I wanted to see out the year with some Danielson. Neat opener. I've never seen the Briscoes before. This had an old-school feel to it. Danielson actually reminded me quite a bit of Backlund in this match. Briscoe hung with Danielson in a fundamentally sound way that reminded you of studio matches of days gone by. Danielson didn't do anything terribly amazing, but I liked the flow here. I'm glad I decided it to watch it.

This was a great looking match on paper but was mostly a mediocre brawl with not one, but two, referee stretcher jobs. There was some slick running between the ropes from Felino and Black Tiger, and Casas vs. Wagner was good when they weren't busy fluffing about, but the finish was the kind of abject nonsense that makes people hate Monterrey. The ref started running the ropes like a madman and hit Wagner with a clothesline then counted the pin. The crowd loved it, which I guess should count for something, but how many great matches on paper have been ruined by Monterrey BS. I should know better at this point, but even if the matches are rarely above house show level, you still think there's going to be that one gem that slips through the cracks. Forgettable year for Negro Casas. The next time someone says he was one of the best in the world for every year of his career, call them out on it.

This was a fun, albeit predictable, television match. They played up the dynamic well. Rey seemed to have a bit of difficult hitting his usual counters on Brock, or maybe Brock wasn't used to taking hurricanranas. I quite liked the realistic finish. There was no shame in Rey losing to Brock, and I was pleased that Brock didn't need any gimmickry to defeat Rey. Won't get anywhere near MOTY for me personally, but definitely worth watching.

This was better than I expected given that Ogawa sucks and I've been generally down on Kawada of late. I liked how reckless and loose it felt. Given how poor inter-promotional matches are in the 00s, and how shitty the build up was with the emphasis on "mic performances" (the Japanese version of promos), they at least gave us a genuine fight. I didn't agree with the booking decisions (the restart and finish), but I was engrossed by the action, which I didn't think would happen. Fun match.

I appreciated the fact that they gave us a huge title fight on the final RAW of the year. As far as the wrestling went, Michaels' offence looked terrible in the early going and the match was much better when Triple H was in control no matter what people think of his poor man's Harley Race schtick. Triple H's haircut was weird. It reminded me of when I finally cut my hair in the late 90s and tried to keep some of the length. Michael's thinning hairline was also pretty off-putting. I spent a chunk of the match being weirded out by their hair. Eventually, I was suckered into the WWE melodrama that they do so well, especially when JR and the King were still around. It was a great crowd, which always helps. But, in typical WWE fashion, they couldn't pull the plug on Michaels winning the title in his hometown and had to get all cutesy with the finish. I couldn't give two shits about Bischoff at this point, and even Austin returning wasn't anything special. The real drama was in the finishing stretch and they shat all over it with the booking. Michaels' facial expressions were hilariously bad. I respect his comeback in general, but he's such a shitty actor. For a free TV match, this was a nice end of year gift, but I could have done without the Dusty finish.

I’m thankful I ain’t Ricky Rude.

Not best of seven, but Flair and Regal had that best of five Marquis of Queensbury cup, and I wanna say that Rick Rude and Dustin Rhodes had a best of three series. The problem with declaring a best of seven series is that you're telegraphing that it'll go seven.

Mark Rocco vs. Ashura Hara (10/4/79) I'm not a big fan of Rocco in Japan, but if he's wrestling as himself and his opponent is the great Ashura Hara, then I'm there. It's obvious watching this that Rocco doesn't know how he should wrestle in Japan considering he was on a tear in the UK. That said, the audience really only pops for Hara's nearfalls so maybe it was a tough crowd. Hara is awesome. Rocco probably could have done more to stand out.

Mile Zrno & Charly Verhulst vs. Ashura Hara & Jiro Inazuma (Gerry Morrow) IWE 5/9/1979 I'm a little upset that Jetlag didn't tell me he uploaded a Zrno vs Hara tag, and it has Charly Verhulst to boot! Zrno vs. Hara is one of the greatest match-ups in pro-wrestling history. I wish they had wrestled as many times as Flair and Steamboat. Verhulst was a better world traveler than the likes of Steve Wright, and Hara should be remembered as one of the great juniors. That is all.

Man, that Ohtani/Orihara match is every bit as good as advertised. What a brutal, spite-filled bout with two young guys too dumb enough to know that the victory wasn't worth getting hurt over.

That Bruno/Patera match is great. Bruno is so good at delivering a kick or a knee, and his clubbing blows look fantastic. The lack of commentary and constant heat made for one of the better viewing experiences I've had in a while. It almost felt like you were there. Ken Patera was a great pro-wrestler. Loved his bladejob and punch drunk shtick at the end. His diving elbow when Bruno was scrambling for the corner was sweet. Awesome sideburns too.

Fuck yes, this is more like it. Hashimoto proves he isn't completely washed up by systematically taking apart Masato Tanaka. Excellent.

This was better than you'd expect given that Momoe can't really work Yoshida's style. It was a bit sprinty since it was a tournament final, and it basically became a typical Momoe AJW match after Yoshida got her shit in, but I was expecting a whole lot worse. Maybe I'm being generous because it's two of my faves. I've certainly seen worse tournament finals.

This was a lot of fun. It was clipped in parts so it was hard to get a gauge for the rhythm, but the third fall was hard fought and featured some great action. Virus, Ricky Marvin & Volador Jr may have been the best trio in Mexico in 2003. This was an opportunity to see them in a different territory, and against guys you wouldn't usually see them wrestle.

This was a decent spot fest, but I was looking for something with a bit more meat, especially since ROH hasn't had anywhere near as good matches in 2003 as it did in 2002, and Joe's run as champ hasn't had a lot of blow away matches, either. Instead, it was more of the same. The work was good, but there was no real attempt at trying to make this a classic world title fight, which is strange because a classic world title fight would have really stood out in '03.

Modesto Aledo vs. Bob Remy (aired 7/29/67) This wasn't as exciting as the first Aledo match, largely because it didn't descend into manchettes and crowd brawling, but we did get to see some of the mechanics of Aledo's wrestling. He definitely looks like he was a great worker. It's a little difficult to tell which mold of worker, but I'm glad this match wasn't missing as originally thought. Frank Valois vs. Jacky Wiecz (aired 8/2/67) Jesus, Valois was a big unit. This isn't my preferred style of wrestling, but they joined during the heated part so it wasn't too bad. I was surprised to see Wiecz take the win. Robert Gastel vs. Eddie Williams (aired 8/2/67) This restored my faith in Robert Gastel. I was kind of down on him after the boring Di Santo match, and was beginning to have my doubts about him, but he was much better here. Williams was a good looking, athletic type, but didn't offer much outside of his physique. Gastel totally carried this. The ref was truly awful and almost ruined things with his cornball act, but even his BS couldn't detract from Gastel's crafty performance. Anton Tejero vs. Walter Bordes (aired 8/29/67) This match was available back in the old days when every piece of Catch footage was like mana from heaven. Tejero is a fabulous worker, but I wasn't really feeling this. I wanted to see Bordes shine, but Tejero was up to his tricks all bout long and Bordes didn't cut loose until the finishing stretch. I'd probably like this more on a different day where I haven't just watched an entire run of similar matches. Teddy Boy vs Gerard Bouvet (aired 12/16/67) Final few minutes. Looked like they drew good heat. Bouvet was jacked for a smaller guy.

I may have been too hard on The Authority. I'm still not fond of late 90s superhero comics, but it's better than I gave it credit for. Hitch's art is beautiful even if it is at the forefront of the shift towards big panels and sparse dialogue.